Kumho-Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo.

Three Kumho Tire products won 2015 Good Design Awards from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, the Korean tire maker said on Sept. 30.

The Good Design Award is Japan’s most prestigious international design promotion competition. It’s hosted by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion. The 2015 Good Design Awards lived up to its tradition and celebrated its 50th anniversary. 

Good Design Awards are given according to the outcomes of the overall evaluation of design, usability and innovativeness of products, and award winners are granted use of the G Mark symbol, which has been an emblem of good design for over half a century. 

The scope of screening is divided into different categories — product, space, media and solution. Kumho Tire’s items won Good Design Awards in the transportation equipment and facilities for commercial use. Kumho Tire grabbed 2015 Good Design Awards for the second straight year. Kumho Tire’s winning items are the technology-intensive Sealant Tire, K-Silent Tire noted for reducing resonance, and WinterCRAFT Wi6l for use in winter. 

The Good Design Award is a comprehensive design-promotion system that picks good design out of a variety of unfolding phenomena, and aims to enrich our lives, industries, and society as a whole by highlighting and celebrating these works. It is hosted by the Japan Institute for Design Promotion, a public interest incorporated foundation. It’s precursor, the Good Design Selection System (or G Mark System), was founded in 1957 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (the current Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), and has been engaged in this work for about 60 years. Submissions come from a wide range of fields, and roughly 1,200 designs are recognized every year. Over 59 years, around 42,000 designs have been recognized by the wards.

Kumho Tire made a sensation by releasing the Sealant Tire, the first tire maker to do so in Korea. The tire is self-sealing. The tire also won the 2015 Red Dot Award, recognized for its design prowess. 

The K-Silent Tire employed the K-Silent system, which was developed on its own. It reduces resonance by optimizing sound-absorbing shapes and materials. The tire is noted for retaining general functions, including ride and handling, and rolling resistance/wet grip, but reducing resonance to ensure comfortable driving. 

The WinterCRAFT Wi6l is good for driving on slippery roads in winter. Kumho Tire has optimized traction and driving functions by improving traction on snowy or icy roads. The tire is noted for outstanding design. 

“The Good Design Award is one of the world’s top four design completion awards, along with Germany’s iF and Red Dot and the IDEA Design Award of the United States, and the winning of the award for the second straight year is a recognition of Kumho Tiire’s design competitiveness,” said Executive Vice President Chung Taek-kyun of Kumho Tire Research & Technology Division. 

Kumho Tire plans to devote itself to raising its global brand standing by ramping up its design capabilities suiting advanced tire technologies in the future, he added.

Kumho Tire’s three tires have won 2015 Good Design Awards from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.(Photos:Kumho Tire)